Radiohead's OK Computer
In the mid-1990s, rock and roll experienced another of its many transitions. During the early ‘90s, the “grunge” scene, emanating from Seattle and its surrounding area, enthralled the youth of the time with the music of such acts as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. This surge in high-distortion, high angst rock snapped the genre out of the doldrums of glam-metal, which, for a long time, dominated the “rock music” racks of record stores across America.
By 1997, grunge was dead, its end spurred by the death of Kurt Cobaine, the impending breakup of Soundgarden, and the increasing vapidity of Pearl Jam. At the same time, bubble gum pop made its comeback, thanks to acts like Hanson and the Spice Girls (even today, irritatingly saccharine acts like the Backstreet Boys and their seemingly infinite clones dominate pop charts). Fortunately, in the summer of 1997, the British rock band Radiohead released OK Computer, which received both critical acclaim and commercial success, a rare combination in today’s music scene. The album caught enough attention in both respects that it was later nominated for both best alternative album and album of the year, and received the former award (Hilburn C-6).
OK Computer is important because it is one of the few albums released in this decade that has an underlying message; Radiohead, while never coming out and stating it, does an excellent job a blending subtlety with clarity.
By both its lyrical and musical complexity, OK Computer covers a broad emotional range, evoking, as David Cheal puts it, “gloom and alienation; but you also get warmth and yearning” (15). Dimitri Ehrlich adds that, as a whole, the album is “unglossy, unhandsome, and every bit as complex as modern life” (56).
“Paranoid Android” expresses this complexity at a level in which frustration and alienation come hand in hand. The song, clocking at nearly seven minutes, begins with the elegant plucking of an acoustic guitar and lead singer Thom Yorke’s statement of bitterness: “When I am king, you will be first against the wall.” After a brief guitar break, the song begins its tremulous diatribe on the loss of identity: “Why don’t you remember my name? / Off with his head now, off with his head.
Michal Klein was the perfect girl-- popular and fun. Internet addiction was the last thing one would associate her with. However, when her father re-installed the filter on the internet after showing his family a short YouTube video, Michal caught sight of the password. After a depressing week home from school due to the swine flu, she decided to try deactivating the filter just once so that she could watch Jewish music videos online. Soon they lost their thrill so Michal started watching Non-Jewish music videos as well. She couldn’t believe she was subjecting her neshama to such filth-- but it was too hard to keep away from it. From there, she carried on to a worse site. She remembered hearing the name of a chatting site from a friend whose brother was off the derech. Immediately after she logged on, someone with the pseudonym “Snake” started asking her questions of all sorts, including whether she’d ever tried drugs. Michal was repulsed by the questions posed and quickly logged off of the computer, but it wasn’t long before she yearned for more and was back on. Snake became her closest online friend.The Jewish songs on her ipod were quickly replaced with rocky Non-Jewish ones, and her new Blackberry was ever-present. There was one song in particular that called her soul-- she fell asleep to its beats every night. On the outside, Michal was the ...
Rock n’ roll gave people the voice they did not have in the early years. As the genre of music became more wide spread, people actually began to speak out. Altschuler touches on the exploration of how the rock n' roll culture roughly integrated with replaced and conflicted with preceding cultural values. Many of these values were very touch topics. Besides black civil rights, sexuality were one of the most sensitive t...
Similar to Nick, Fitzgerald found that his different lifestyle was exciting. And similar to Gatsby Fitzgerald idolized the rich and extravagant life style. In conclusion The Great Gatsby seems as if it it reflects personal experiences in Fitzgerald’s life but not his full life. Fitzgerald envisioned Gatsby as what he dreamed to be and always tried to be like. And Nick was whom Fitzgerald really embodies. Both these characters in The Great Gatsby can help us understand more about Fitzgerald and what he was trying to say through the characters of the book regarding his own
The rise of rock and roll into the limelight is to a large extent attributed to the teenagers of the 1950’s. Early rock music listened to by teenagers during the 1950’s was formed by blending together Rhythm and blues with country music. This kind of ...
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about Nick Caraway, a man who moved into New York in West Egg. He soon finds out that his house borders a mansion of a wealthy man, named Jay Gatsby, who is in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchannan. Nick describes his past experiences with Gatsby. He is an unreliable first person narrator, for he is extremely subjective being biased towards Gatsby and he is deceptive, with his lying and past actions. His evaluation of Gatsby is not entirely just, due to his close friendship with Gatsby.
The biggest influential song on Nirvana’s Nevermind album was the first song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It reached number 6 on the Top 40 Charts. This song was groundbreaking for Nirvana and the alternative music scene as a whole. After the release of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” white, middle-class youth of the United States finally had a style of music to call their own and express their “teenage anthems” (Stuessy, Joe). This was the first song to emerge from alternative rock and to be known in the mainstream of rock and roll, expressing their generation’s expectations, “...here we are now, entertain us”(Stuessy, Joe). “Smells like Teen Spirit” was Curt Cobain’s “attempt to write the ultimate pop song”(Nevermind, Nirvana). He used the soft-loud dynamics of his favorite band, the Pixies. The insidious hooks also showed his admiration for the Beatle’s John Lennon(Nevermind, Nirvana). The style used in this song is simple, plain, loud, and straight-forward. Musically, there is nothing very “innovative” or difficult. However, the reason it is important to rock history is because it brought America’s attention to the once before underground style of grunge. “A driving drum beat, powered by Novelsek’s rhythmic bass, and a memorable guitar riff and solo, mix perfectly with Kurt Cobain’s depressing yet humorous lyrics” (Kastner, Patrick). While it has certainly been overplayed in the past years, it is still an essential part of Rock history.
The Great Gatsby has a main set of characters, each with different relations to one another. The story is narrated through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a bonds salesman who lives in a small cottage on Gatsby’s estate. Nick is an honest man who looks out for people and always tries to do what’s right. The book is titled after Jay Gatsby; a successful businessman who is hopelessly in love with Nick’s married cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby is a dreamer who will do anything in his power to...
The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, was first published in 1925. It is a tale of love, loss, and betrayal set in New York in the mid 1920’s. It follows Nick Carraway, the narrator, who moves to Long Island where he spends time with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and meets his mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Nick can be viewed as the voice of reason in this novel. He is a static character that readers can rely on to tell the truth, as he sees it. But not only the readers rely on him. Daisy, Gatsby, Tom, and Jordan all confide in him and trust that he will do the right thing. Nick Carraway is the backbone of the book and its main characters.
This article demonstatres how important Kurt Cobain was both as a rock and roll icon and a philosopher. His songs which he recorded himself are still popular today, over 20 years after his death. The author argues how Cobain influences other young artists and his effect on the direction of the music industry.
From the beginning of The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway is developed as a reliable narrator. His honesty and sense of duty are established as he remarks on his own objectivity and willingness to withhold judgment. However, as the book progresses and Nick’s relationship with Jay Gatsby grows more intimate, it is revealed that Nick is not as reliable as previously thought when it comes to Gatsby. Nick perceives Gatsby as pure and blameless, although much of Gatsby's persona is false. Because of his friendship and love for Gatsby, his view of the events is fogged and he is unable to look at the situation objectively.
The Great Gatsby is probably F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest novel. This novel is an American classic and a facsinating evocative work that offers insightful views of the America during the 1920s. Fitzgerald, himself, seems to have had a brilliant understanding of lives that are corrupted by sadness and greed. The events in the novel are filtered through its narrator, Nick Carraway who is a young Yale university graduate, who is and is not part of the world he describes. After moving to New York, he rents a bungalow next door to the glorius mansion of a multi-millionare, Jay Gatsby.
Nick Carraway is Jay Gatsby’s closest and only companion. Nick said, “I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited—they went there” (Fitzgerald 45). Gatsby did not have friends that appreciated him enough to comprehend his inner being (Fitzgerald 45). When Gatsby grinned, Nick Carraway could instantly feel comforted and sympathized the way a real friend should feel. According to Gilbey, “But with the sound of Nick's description of that smile: ‘It seemed to understand and believe in you just as you wanted to be understood and believed in’” (Gilbey). Nick Carraway held several unspoken and interesting conversations with Gatsby (Vancheri). Jay Gatsby displayed his feelings and experiences from his past to Nick Carraway. Gatsby can trust Nick with his emotional memories towards Daisy. Jay Gatsby explained his real background to Nick wanting him to overlook all the rumors and lies people have babbled about (“Great”, Scott).
Social Security has played a major role in supporting the elderly as well as sick and disabled financially for many years. However, we do not know how long this will last their are many problems facing social security and the funding of it with the population continuing to grow more and more people are taking advantage of social security. The main problem is people who do not really need the help and free income of social security abusing it making the government actually spend more than they actually putting into the social security fund. In this paper I will not only discuss the problems surrounding social security but also solutions in which could not only help better social security but also make it available for generations to come.
Oedipus had good intentions for his people and tries to save the city when death is at its doorstep even admitting that they mean more to him that is own life “I grieve for these, my people far more that I fear for my own life”(106-106). His determination to seek the truth and care for his people not only makes him an admirable man but respectable king. His quest for truth no matter